by Nick Morrison – 9 mins ago
LONDON (AFP) – 1510 GMT: The operator of Japan's disaster-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says it may use helicopters to drop water to fill up a pool that contains spent fuel rods, my colleagues report from Tokyo, citing a spokesman.
1500 GMT: More detail on the latest tremor to strike Japan, rated by Japan's Meteorological Agency as a 6.0 magnitude and therefore far weaker than Friday's devastating 9.0-magnitude off the country's north-east coast.
The epicentre was located in Shizuoka Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, and power was cut to large areas of the city of Shizuoka, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the capital, while high-speed rail service was suspended.
But two nuclear reactors located in the area continued to function normally, Jiji Press agency quoted operator Chubu Electric Power as saying.
1445 GMT: Reporters in the AFP newsroom in Tokyo felt the building shake quite strongly during the latest aftershock to strike the region. The swaying lasted for at least a minute, my colleague there Susan Stumme writes.
1430 GMT: US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has assured lawmakers there that the United States will learn from quake-hit Japan's nuclear crisis but said US atomic facilities had "rigorous" safety rules, my colleagues in Washington report.
1424 GMT: Following earlier post at 0736 GMT about Air China and Taiwan's EVA Airways reducing their flights to Japan, German flag carrier Lufthansa says it is diverting all Tokyo-bound flights to the other Japanese cities of Nagoya and Osaka, both hundreds of kilometres (miles) west of the capital, at least until Sunday.
Lufthansa is also checking flights from Japan for radioactivity but has not found any traces so far, a spokesman said.
1410 GMT: The US Geological Survey (USGS) reports the fresh quake southwest of Tokyo was a magnitude 6.1 and said it had been preceded a few minutes earlier by another 5.8-magnitude tremor.
The epicentre of that aftershock was located 315 kilometres northeast of Tokyo.
1405 GMT: The levels of radiation detected in Tokyo and the neighbouring city of Chiba have fallen back after rising above normal levels possibly due to radiation emitted from a quake-hit nuclear power plant, my colleagues report from Tokyo, citing officials.
Tokyo officials said they detected 0.809 of a micro-sievert between 10:00 and 11:00 am in the capital, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of the troubled Fukushima plant on the Pacific coast.
The normal level is about 0.035-0.036 micro-sieverts. A chest X-ray typically involves a dose of 20 micro-sieverts.
The level fell to an average 0.075 micro-sieverts four hours later.
"It is returning closer to the normal level. But we need to keep a close watch on it," city health and welfare official Keiichi Nakaya said.
1350 GMT: More detail on another earthquake that has hit southwest of Tokyo, my colleagues there are reporting.
The epicentre was located in Shizuoka Prefecture, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of the capital, and near Mount Fuji, which is prone to earthquakes.
The quake occured at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometres.
1345 GMT: A strong quake was felt late on Tuesday in Tokyo, shaking buildings in Japan's capital four days after a massive tremor sparked the devastating tsunami that ravaged the country's northeast coast, my colleagues in Tokyo report.
The Japan Meteorological Agency put the magnitude of the quake at 6.0, according to public broadcaster NHK. The epicentre was located in Shizuoka, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of the capital.
1330: A quick recap of the day's events concerning the situation in Japan following Friday's huge 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent devastating tsunami.
- Two more blasts and a fire have rocked the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant northeast of Tokyo and radiation levels around the facility have reached dangerous levels, prompting the government to advise people up to 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the reactor to stay indoors
- The accident now rates at level six on the seven-point international scale of gravity for nuclear accidents, the head of France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) says, though Japan's nuclear safety agency maintains its rating at level four.
The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania rated five on the scale, while Chernobyl was put at seven, the highest.
- Higher than normal radiation is detected in Tokyo, but a city official said it was not considered at a level harmful to human health and the level fell later Tuesday.
- The UN weather agency in Geneva is saying that winds are currently blowing radioactive material towards the ocean, and that there were "no implications" for Japan or countries nearby.
- The official toll of the dead and missing following the earthquake and tsunami that flattened the country's northeast coast has topped 10,000, with 3,373 confirmed dead.
- Japan's stocks fall more than 14 percent before clawing back ground with shares ending down 10.55 percent.
- The Bank of Japan has pumped eight trillion yen (almost $100 billion) into the financial system to soothe shaken money markets following a record 15-trillion yen injection Monday.
1310 GMT: To expand on my previous post, Japanese police are saying the official toll of the dead and missing following the earthquake and tsunami that flattened the country's northeast coast has topped 10,000, with 3,373 confirmed dead.
1306 GMT: Police in Japan say the official death toll from the Japan quake-tsunami disaster now stands at at 3,373, my colleagues report from Tokyo.
1250 GMT: Growing alarm over Japan's nuclear disaster is prompting several European nations to review the safety of their own nuclear installations, with Germany temporarily shutting down seven reactors pending a review, my colleagues report from our Berlin office.
As Japan's nuclear crisis escalated Tuesday with two more blasts and a fire rocking the quake-stricken Fukushima power plant, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a safety review of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors and a three-month closure of seven of them.
"We are launching a safety review of all nuclear reactors ... with all reactors in operation since the end of 1980 set to be idled for the period of the (three-month) moratorium," Merkel said.
1235 GMT: Japan's nuclear safety agency is maintaining its rating of the accident at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant at four on the seven-point global scale after a French watchdog upgraded it to six, my colleagues report from Tokyo.
"There is no discussion here about upgrading the international nuclear accident rating for the Fukushima plant," an official at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency told AFP.
1230 GMT: This just in from my AFP colleague, photographer Mike Clarke, in the devastated city of Sendai on Japan's northeast coast:
"At the main bus station in Sendai city, there are long queues of people trying to buy tickets. It's been snowing and raining all day.
"Petrol is now a big issue. Our team drove for an hour to find an open petrol station. The first station was only offering 10 litres per car, the second was open only for emergency vehicles. We have a special pass to get on express roads -- only press and emergency services have these passes.
"The roads aren't busy because ordinary Japanese don't have enough fuel. The main roads are passable but many of the smaller side roads are ruined.
"To buy anything in Sendai, you have to queue for hours. You're allowed one basket of food only at a time. Everyone's still queueing in an orderly manner, following the rules, following all the protocols of Japanese society, but you can feel the tension in the air."
1220 GMT: More detail on the design of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant from my colleagues in Paris.
The confinement vessel, made out of reinforced concrete, surrounds the steel vessel that houses the nuclear reactor.
It is designed to contain radioactive gas or dust, preventing them from being expelled into the air.
France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) have made a further statement in Paris about the timings of the explosions at the plant on Tuesday.
In a press statement, the ASN said two "successive explosions, at 6:10 am and 10:00 am local time probably caused damage to the confinement vessel which is the source of the significant increase in detected radioactive releases."
1210 GMT: The concrete vessel around the No. 2 reactor at Japan's Fukushima plant, designed to contain radioactive debris, is "no longer sealed," Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) says, my colleagues report from Paris.
Lacoste was speaking at a press conference in which he also said the accident at Fukushima now rated six on the seven-point international scale of gravity, placing it second to Chernobyl as the world's worst nuclear disaster.
The ASN is being briefed by the Japanese authorities and by a specialist from France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), according to the agency.
1200 GMT: Clarifying my 1135 GMT post on the international scale of gravity for nuclear accidents -- this is officially known as the International Nuclear and Radiological Event scale (INES) and was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
According to the IAEA's official definition of a level six accident on this scale, this would involve "the significant release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of planned countermeasures."
1150 GMT: Following on from my previous post, the raising of the gravity level of the nuclear accident to six on a seven-point scale could make the Fukushima Daiichi plant explosion the second most serious ever after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine, which is the only level seven incident to have taken place.
When the blast occurred on Saturday in reactor number 1, Japanese authorities had said it was a level four incident.
1135 GMT: The accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant now rates six on seven-point international scale of gravity for nuclear accidents, Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), says in Paris.
1120 GMT: The Chinese government says it is evacuating its nationals from quake-hit parts of Japan while two airlines have cut flights to the stricken country as foreigners scrambled to leave from Tokyo's airports, my colleagues report from Hong Kong.
Air China and Taiwan's EVA Airways have reduced their flights into the ravaged country while Malaysia is screening passengers arriving from Japan for radiation.
China said it was sending buses to evacuate its citizens from four disaster-hit areas including Fukushima, northeast of Tokyo, where two explosions took place at a nuclear power station Tuesday and radiation levels were found to be harmful to humans.
Other overseas nationals in Japan took matters into their own hands.
Student Kin Li, 18, returned home to Hong Kong from Tokyo because of radiation fears.
"Things were so chaotic over there. There were long lines at the airport -- it was like a refugee camp," he told AFP at the Chinese territory's airport.
Li's mother said: "I was so worried and unhappy. I told my son studying would have to wait -- 'Safety first.' The situation is just heart-wrenching. I just wanted him home."
At Tokyo's Haneda airport, where long queues stretched from departure desks, French national Baptiste Chetcuti said: "I have a pregnant wife and a 10-year-old daughter, and we're here at Haneda airport. We don't have any return tickets yet, but we want to leave Japan -- whatever the price."
EVA Airways cancelled 14 flights scheduled to leave for Tokyo from Taiwan before the end of March and another five to Sapporo, a spokesman for the firm said, blaming cancellations by tourists.
1100 GMT: The Japanese government says there is no reason to close the Tokyo stock market despite two days of heavy losses, with panicking investors dumping shares as a nuclear crisis escalated.
Tokyo stocks suffered their biggest one-day fall since the 2008 Lehman shock on Tuesday, with the main Nikkei index ending 10.55 percent lower, after losing as much as 14 percent at one point.
The losses came after the government warned radiation levels had risen to dangerous levels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant northeast of the capital following a series of explosions and a fire.
However, economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said the stock market "has experienced a similar pace of falls about four or five times amid the Lehman shock."
He added: "I expect the market to regain its stability. I don't have any concerns for the future."
1046 GMT: The UN weather agency in Geneva is saying that winds are currently blowing radioactive material towards the ocean, and that there were "no implications" for Japan or countries nearby.
1043 GMT: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia's nuclear agency to carry out a review of the future of the atomic energy sector in the country after the Japanese earthquake, my colleagues in Moscow report.
1035 GMT: This from my colleague Susan Stumme in Tokyo: "There are numerous convenience stores around the AFP bureau in Tokyo's Ginza district, and none of them have any bottles of water.
"Shelves are also nearly cleared of candy and other snacks, an AFP reporter said. Coffee shops in the area have closed early."
1024 GMT: AFP reporter Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura has been monitoring posts on micro-blogging site Twitter about the twin disasters in Japan and the government's response.
Many users are hailing chief government spokesman Yukio Edano for his appearances at press briefings day and night -- and want him to get some rest.
The hashtag #edano_nero is trending on the popular site -- "nero" means "go to sleep" in Japanese.
1022 GMT: AFP correspondent Hiroshi Hiyama has just sent this from the hard-hit northeast Japanese fishing town of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture:
"Mudwater full of rubble surged against my house. I saw running cars being pushed back by the high waves," Mikio Takahashi, 57, told AFP.
"I think the wave was as high as four metres. Then we had the aftershocks. It was just terrifying."
1015 GMT: Russia's Far East region is nervously monitored any increase in radiation from the quake-damaged Japanese nuclear plant but experts said any threat was reduced by favourable weather, AFP reports from Vladivostok.
The main city of the Russian's Far East is no more than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) west of the Fukushima nuclear plant, and officials have been measuring the background radiation levels every hour.
The meteorological service said that radiation levels were within the normal limits throughout the region but the military emphasized it could evacuate the Pacific Kuril and Sakhalin islands at short notice should the need arise.
The emergencies ministry said that radiation in the region had over the last four days ranged between 10-17 microroentgen per hour compared with a maximum accepted norm of 30 per hour.
The spokeswoman for the local weather service, Varvara Koridze, said that air samples that were taken "contained the usual background components. Radionuclides that would have been the result of an explosion were not found."
0955 GMT: My colleague Kelly MacNamara has sent me this report from on the ground in the city of Sendai, one of the worst hit areas as it was just 80 miles (130km) from the epicentre of Friday's quake.
"At the once-bustling regional airport in Sendai city, a lone figure walks across a bridge inside the gutted terminal. Small planes jut out at awkward angles from the thick mud.
"The devastation is absolute, revealing the utter force of the massive wall of water that struck Japan's northeast Pacific coast on Friday, following a 9.0-magnitude earthquake -- one of the biggest ever recorded.
"Clusters of beachfront houses were flattened and smashed into airport buildings -- the modest wooden structures turned into flotsam in an instant after the twin natural disasters.
We were expecting a major earthquake on the coast here and had put plans in place to protect lives, but the level of this calamity is beyond what we planned for," says Sendai mayor Emiko Okuyama.
"It is extremely painful for me."
0935 GMT: Japan's nuclear crisis has sparked panic buying of iodine pills, with online bids exceeding $500 for a single packet, but health experts dampened down the hysteria and warned the pills are of limited use, my colleague Amy Coopes reports from Hong Kong.
As another blast rocked the quake-hit nuclear plant on Japan's north-east coast Tuesday, and crews worked frantically to cool reactors that emitted dangerous levels of radiation near the facility, jitters spread to Tokyo and beyond.
US-based firms selling potassium iodide, a radiation sickness preventative, completely ran out of stock and pharmacies across the country's Pacific-facing West Coast had a rush on the over-the-counter pills.
"We are quite slammed with orders, but we are working as fast as we can to get orders out," said NukePills.com, which had sold out of iodine tablets and was fast exhausting oral liquid supplies.
"We are experiencing delays in shipping due to the Japan nuclear crisis. A delay in shipping may be a week or more."
Potassium iodide is a salt used to saturate the thyroid gland to block the uptake of radioactive iodine, a highly carcinogenic substance that can leak from nuclear reactors in an accident.
But the UN's health agency has been quick to point out that iodine pills are "not radiation antidotes" and offer no protection against radioactive elements such as caesium, stressing they also carried health risks for some people, including pregnant women.
The WHO also cautioned against drinking or applying iodine liquid, commonly used as an antiseptic, after a rush on the wound cleaner in Asian countries, where iodine is typically only available in hospitals or by prescription.
0925 GMT: Rescuers have pulled a 70-year-old woman alive from underneath the rubble of a home in the quake-hit town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture, northeast Japan, four days after the disaster, public broadcaster NHK reports.
0910 GMT: Jittery Tokyo residents are filling outbound trains and rushing to shops to stock up on food, water, face masks and emergency supplies, my colleague there Yuka Ito reports, amid fears that radiation is heading their way from the Fukushima reactor.
0855 GMT: The threat from the nuclear reactor damaged by Japan's huge earthquake is "extremely high," France's foreign minister says as Japan met with other Group of Eight powers.
"The situation is extremely serious... The risk is extremely high," said minister Alain Juppe, after Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto briefed him and their other G8 counterparts on the situation in Paris on Monday evening.
Japan's nuclear crisis escalated Tuesday as two more blasts and a fire rocked the quake-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, sending radiation up to dangerous levels, though they have now started falling, the chief government spokesman said.
0830 GMT: This is Nick Morrison taking over the live report from my colleagues in Hong Kong. Stay with us for all the latest on the situation in Japan where there has been a radiation leak from the Fukushima No.1 plant, 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, which has suffered a total of four explosions and a fire since Friday's huge earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems.
0805 GMT: The level of radiation in Tokyo has fallen this afternoon after rising above normal levels in the morning due to radiation emitted from a quake-hit nuclear power plant, metropolitan officials said.
0803 GMT: The radiation levels have fallen at the quake-hit Japan power plant, according to a spokesman.
0800 GMT: Slight temperature rise in two more reactors at quake-hit Japan plant, officials say
0745 GMT: The threat from a nuclear reactor damaged by Japan's huge earthquake is "extremely high," France's foreign minister said Tuesday as Japan met with other Group of Eight powers.
0736 GMT: Airlines begin to cut back on flights to Japan. Air China says it has cut flights back because of worries related to aftershocks rather than to the nuclear crisis at a power plant in Fukushima. Taiwan's EVA Airways has cancelled all flights to Sendai until June 30 and some flights to Tokyo and Sapporo for the rest of the month.
- Indonesian and Hong Kong authorities and Singapore Airlines said their flight schedules to Japan would proceed
0718 GMT: Canada said Tuesday that the damage to a nuclear power plant in Japan was "not expected to pose any health or safety risk" to the North American country.
0710 GMT: Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday strongly criticised the operator of an earthquake-stricken atomic power plant as engineers struggled to avert a nuclear catastrophe, Kyodo News reported.
- "The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the premier's office for about an hour," the agency quoted him as saying.
0709 GMT: China says 'very concerned' about safety of its nationals in quake-hit Japan
0708 GMT: Fire at Japan reactor spent fuel pond, radioactivity released into atmosphere: IAEA0706 GMT: "We were expecting a major earthquake on the coast here and had put plans in place to protect lives, but the level of this calamity is beyond what we planned for," says Sendai mayor Emiko Okuyama.
0700 GMT: Japan's government has urged people against panic-buying of food and supplies, as the country grapples with a massive natural disaster and resulting nuclear crisis. Daily necessities are in desperately short supply in the northeastern region worst-hit by Friday's earthquake and tsunami.
0659 GMT: The economic aftershocks from the massive earthquake off the coast of Japan, the resulting tsunami and a feared nuclear meltdown could hit global production of everything from aircraft to iPads.
- With ports, airports, highways and manufacturing plants across Japan shut down, the government has predicted "considerable impact on a wide range of our country's economic activities".
0643 GMT: AFP reporter Kelly MacNamara has been visiting evecuation centres in Natori and has found Japan's famed emphasis on social harmony is very much in evidence in even the most dire circumstances .
- From the sharing of tasks among volunteers to the neat arrangement of shoes outside the living areas, life in the shelters set up in the wake of Friday's disasters is orderly and peaceful -- unlike the chaos brought by Mother Nature.
- "I have never been in a disaster before so I didn't know what to expect. In the movies, you always see people running around screaming but here at the centre, it's really calm," Canadian student Jouvon Evans told AFP. Evans, a 24-year-old from Toronto who is studying in Tokyo, was travelling by train to hard-hit Sendai city with six friends when the quake struck.
- One of her friends, 21-year-old Alice Caffyn, who hails from London. also expressed her amazement at the kindness of strangers and the relative ease with which area residents have set up emergency operations without much obvious help from local government officials.
- "Obviously it's very calm. People have been really kind to us. There is a group of older women who are sitting next to us. They live in the local area. Every time they come back, they bring us prepared meals."
0615 GMT: Tokyo shares closed down 10.55 percent on Tuesday as panicking investors dumped stocks after the government said rising radiation levels at a stricken nuclear plant posed a threat to health.
0602 GMT: Asahi newspaper reports that according to TEPCO, the operator of the troubled nuclear power plants in Japan, US military personnel were involved in fighting the fire in Reactor Number 4 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
0600 GMT: The farm ministry says Japan has plenty of food, tells people there is no need for food hoarding, according to the Daily Yomiuri on twitter.
0546 GMT: Kyodo news agency reports that a no-fly zone has been set for 30km-radius over the Fukushima nuclear plant.
0532 GMT: LonelyWonderer tweets: Japanese PM Naoto Kan has sent a text message to mobile phones users across the country, asking them to conserve power
0459 GMT: The Bank of Japan is announcing that it has pumped eight trillion yen into the financial system to soothe shaken money markets. this follows from the bank's move to inject a record 15 trillion yen ($184 billion) to help stabilise the short term-money market.
- The BoJ also said it will double a five trillion yen asset purchase scheme to help buffer the economy from the shock of the catastrophes, and left its key rate at between zero and 0.1 percent.
0432 GMT: An AFP team arriving in Akita in the northwest, on the other side of Japan and a long distance from the nuclear and tsunami zones, report panic-buying as people empty stores of water and essentials. There are also queues at petrol stations, they say.
0418 GMT:Tokyo government official says radiation level not considered at the level where it harms human health.
0403 GMT: Higher than normal radiation levels have been detected in Tokyo, according to the city government.
0356 GMT: Flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Tokyo on Air China were cancelled on Tuesday afternoon and in the evening, the BBC reports.
0350 GMT: Tokyo shares plunged 11.03 percent as Japan's nuclear crisis escalated
0347 GMT: The French embassy in Tokyo has withdrawn a news item on its website saying a low level radioactive wind could reach Tokyo in 10 hours. Embassy officials say the report was unconfirmed and that the winds have changed.
0326 GMT: A fire at the Fukushima nuclear plant has apparently been extinguished, media reports quoted the power station operator as saying.
0324 GMT: Eyewitness tweets: "Just passed Eneos gas station in Yamagata where line went for over 1 km, station attendant bring out portable battery charger for cars."
0322 GMT: Radiation is 400 times the annual legal limit near Fukushima's reactor 3, the Kyodo news agency reports.
0250 GMT: Japan Times Twitter page retweeted - : People in Tokyo metropolitan area do not need to worry about radiation for now b/c distant from Fukushima: Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano.
0230 GMT: The United States nuclear regulatory commission has sent eight additional experts and managers to Japan to help respond to its damaged nuclear power plants.
0221 GMT: Radiation levels around reactors now a threat to human health: Japan govt
0212 GMT: People between 20-30 km around the Fukushima reactor should stay indoors: the Prime Minister said.
0208 GMT: A fire has broken out at the number-four reactor at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 atomic power plant and radiation levels have risen considerably, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.

_________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

Last edited by Darqcyde on Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:59 pm; edited 1 time in total

"Simple" explanation of what has happened at fukushima._________________Ironically, Halen's one of the few people here I wouldn't worry about terrifying my friends and family. In my head he ends every real life conversation stroking his chin and saying, "well yes, that sounds reasonable."

Why is heroes in quotes? If those technicians who stayed down there by the reactors trying to assert some control and do some containment in the face of virtually certain death aren't heroes, then no one is.

Why is heroes in quotes? If those technicians who stayed down there by the reactors trying to assert some control and do some containment in the face of virtually certain death aren't heroes, then no one is.

"Virtually certain death"?

I'm down with calling them heroes but it's not like they're in that much danger. They're basically sacrificing their job (they'll never work in a plant again) and assume a risk of a small increase in cancer maybe sometime in the future._________________

Also, a follow up to squash the belief that this was an isolated incident for nuclear power in Japan.

Japan is all about the coverups.

Few countries can compete with America for most prideful and Japan is surely one of them._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.http://about.me/omardrake

Oh man I read this article today about this Nagasaki survivor who was like 2.2 Km from ground zero and she gave her assessment on the current radiation situation and how people were reacting to it. It's was...not quite what I would expect. I gotta find that now.